Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Infinite Influence (by Defensive Listening)

"We weren't successful, but nothing can beat the feeling when a 15-year-old tells you: "Hey, I listened to Gang of Four, they are brilliant!" Man, that's just awesome!"-Henry Rollins quoted in German Music Magazine "Spex" on the reaction to his failed reissue label, Infinite Zero.

Is Henry Rollins responsible for the glut of derivative retro revival bands that have dominated the underground and mainstream music industries for the last few years? I originally thought he was only responsible for the parade of pseudo intellectual tattooed bullies that have dominated a lot of hardcore since 1984, but he might also be a key figure to blame for everything from Gang of Four sound-a-likes Bloc Party to the oxymoronic phenomenon of No Wave records digitally recorded on Pro-Tools. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of things about Rollins, but I don't usually associate him with the current decade's trends.

This whole theory came to me while I was recently glaring at the disorganized state of my own CD collection. I noticed on at least every couple of rows, there was a ubiquitous blue band on the spine of certain jewel cases, signifying the disc as something to really take note of: An Infinite Zero reissue.

Infinite Zero was the noble pursuit by two well known music industry personalities, Rick Rubin and Henry Rollins, in the mid 1990's. I'll leave Rubin out of this, since his influence on modern music is much more obvious and annoying than Rollins'. Some have suggested that the label was a tax shelter or vanity project for the two principals, but I would take issue with either of those claims. Rollins actually gave up any kind of significant compensation for the project and instead opted for free copies of the reissues in lieu of payment, claiming that any other form of compensation would have forced the label to choose a mere ten releases for reissue instead of the twenty five that saw the light of day.

Of course, none of this kind of selflessness would have mattered if it weren't for the diversity and quality of the releases: Gang of Four. Alan Vega of Suicide. Tom Verlaine of Television. Monks. Trouble Funk. James Chance. In 1995, these names certainly didn't mean as much to as many people as they do today. To the label's credit, I believe the notoriety and infleunce of these visionaries is actually more widespread as a direct result of the reissuing of these records on Infinite Zero. Forexample, I recently found a music sampler for the American Eagle clothing store that was meant for in-store play, and it had a Contortions song on it. It's hard to believe that we live in a time where some of the most deliberately confrontational music ever made is pushed on the masses by a preppy outfitter like American Eagle, a place that is pretty lame by even mall standards. Although this particular example came about in part because of some dubious connection between American Eagle and the online Wal-Mart for hipsters, Insound, it was Infinite Zero that initially blew the dust off of that old "Buy Contortions" record a decade ago, assuring that it could be purcahsed at retailers that were just as unlikely to sell no wave as American Eagle was to play it.

I remember seeing the cover of "Buy Contortions" staring back at me in the crammed bins of Circuit City almost exactly ten years ago. All Infinite Zero releases had a weird white border around a shrunken version of the original album jacket, and the Contortions record features a picture of a girl wearing sunglasses and a shredded bikini. I remember thinking that the picture wasn't really sexual at all, but was instead kind of scary and off putting. The word "BUY" is written in this big imposing font right next to her head, and suggests an obvious visual satire on advertising and consumerism. After hearing that record, I realized that anything with that uppercase "Z" layered over an Infinity sign was going to be nothing like the stuff I heard on the radio in 1996. And even though most of these recordings were already decades old by the mid Nineties, they were actually years ahead of their time.

There is no exact method to prove just how much impact releasing this music has possibly had on the burgeoning throwback bands of the early 21st Century, but if you consider the styles that some of these artists helped establish, it starts to make a lot of sense historically. Garage Rock wasn't exactly hip in 1997, and Monks records were just a dorky record collector's dream. But then Infinite Zero released the legendary punk blueprint that was also one of the great musical anomalies of the sixties, and several years later, Monks are a commonplace name to drop during what is now the cooling stages of a full on Garage Rock revival. Gang Of Four are somehow their own genre, spawning so many copycat bands that you really can't even count them today. But I'm sure that just before the re-release of their debut album "Entertainment" in 1995, you could probably only find their album rotting on vinyl in an un-alphabetized stack at the back of Bill's. People were too busy listening to space-rock, rap-rock and Weezer to really care. I've watched a lot of these people and their music age rather ungracefully and get completely blind-sided by a group of No Wave savvy eighteen year olds on several extremely mismatched bills all around the country. I think that's a completely healthy step in musical evolution that could be traced back to being able to find an album by someone like Alan Vega at Best Buy. I think these reissues might explain the mysterious gap between a band like Hum being labeled the "hot new sound" not so long ago, and a band like A.I.D.S. Wolf receiving that same label today.

If you think this is a stretch, consider that if all the post-punk reuniting that's happened this decade had happened ten years ago, it wouldn't have been nearly as lucrative. Gang of Four actually did put out records in the Nineties to little or no fanfare. The members of Suicide were almost completely forgotten, but now if they put out a record, it would almost be a crime for all the usual music publications not to review it. I think Infinite Zero went very far in reinserting this music into the average music fan's consciousness. Do a "Set Search Criteria" on Myspace music and see how many bands pop up when you enter the query: Influences-Keyword: Gang of Four. I was surprised to find that the number of pages had almost caught up to all the typical mainstream acts. That's remarkable for a band that's never had a platinum selling record ,and it probably wouldn't have happened if their releases hadn't been made available at a reasonable domestic price. Devo was obviously more well known than Gang of Four, but even their key albums were out of print in the mid 90's. I hear a lot more Devo when I go see bands today than I did ten years ago, and it's strange to consider that it could indirectly be because of Henry Rollins.

In the end, Infinite Zero was considered a failed venture, and Warner Brothers cut Rubin and Rollins off from their pet project. The label even tried to release the first seminal Fall records to no avail. This would have raised their profile even more, and I wish I could count those among my collection. Rollins actually went so far as to release the Trouble Funk reissues for a second time on his own 2.13.61. imprint. Ironically, now that many of the Infinite Zero reissues are themselves out of print, I've seen them start to fetch collector's prices. But I can't be bothered with that right now, because I have the latest Futureheads record ready to listen to. I hear it sounds just like Wire.

32 Comments:

I would seriously say that you're on to something. However, stuff like that happens quite often. It really is a matter of luck. I think that it's more that the garage-rock revival was an easier sell to the masses. Especially since Nirvana had pretty much just changed the way people listen to music.My example is a San Francisco based label, Ubiquity Records. They have several small labels underneath the Ubiquity umbrella that rerelease albums by lesser known bands and singers from 60's and 70's. One of those labels is Luv 'n' Haight that exclusively releases underground funk and soul records from back then.They have been putting out these records since the early 90's. You don't really hear much about a funk revival that happened in the late 90's to early 21st century. Maybe that's the next thing that's going to happen though, since there are more labels popping up that keep releasing old soul. I don't mind though. Anyway, DL, I think you bring up a good point. I do love the whole thing of tracing it back to a certain source. I think you're really on to something there.My whole point is, "Why garage rock?" There are always underground labels releasing stuff that was underground years ago. It's just luck.

Totally agree, but think the garage rock revival had more to do with Rhino reissiuing an expanded version of Nuggets in 1998. But maybe Austin Power's band had something to do with it as well. We're talking zeitgeist, after all.

heh... I have that InfiniteZero Gang of Four, that was the only way to get it back in the day. Wished I picked up the Devo's back in college... that was a cool project Rollins did. It would be really cool to see a similar label pop up again.

There's still labels around like that. The Contortions record was just rereleased. I don't have any of their stuff but I'm very impressed by Four Men With Beards. They just reissued P.I.L.'s Metal Box, just as it was originally released. But Henry Rollins? Nah..... -Chris

Um, Nuggets is "that good." In fact, it's probably one of the most influential compliations of all time, and a perfect example of what DL is talking about: a reissue that is so influential that it spawns a whole new era in music (for better or for worse).

Fortunately, the original Nuggets birthed a really great era in music, 70's punk/new wave. Check Please Kill Me, or any other history of the era for the namedrops. Or better yet, check out Pere Ubu's "The Shape of Things," which are live recordings of their first couple of shows from the mid-70's where they do, like, two covers right off Nuggets.

And speaking of James Chance, Tiger Style put out a four or five disc set in 2003 to cash in on the skronk/no wave thing going on. So there's an example of a reissue put out to capitalize on a revitilization spawned by an out of print reissue. It gets pretty circular.

I haven't listened to it since I was about 15/16 and dive into that much. I just remember 13th Floor Elevators, and while they're pretty good, its just not my favorite. Thank you for the correction, I'll download the rest tonight. It just seems there's lots of better garage-y stuff out there. Wasn't a big fun of the CBGB's stuff either. Pere Ubu's great though. I don't know much about Tiger Style (epitonic page) but from the looks of it, they just reissued a kickass record. It always appeared to me that its circular because awesome record goes out of print, other label picks it up, goes out of print, etc....-c

have you ever heard of the internet and how it influences youngsters? i like hank rollins neck muscles and all but i think that i credit the all music guide with my massive street cred. that and good records. its like its all there before me. i dont even have to think!

Corporate friendly Insound owned Tiger Style Records when it was still around. That's what I was referring to in the anecdote about American Eagle. For whatever reason, Ari Sass (the guy who started both and I can't make up a name like that), gave up on the Tiger Style label. That probably makes that box set out of print now. You can buy overpriced reissues of those James Chance albums on Ze Records.

I have to thank you again for the Nuggets. That "Too Much to Dream Last Night" song still makes me cringe as much as the first time I've heard it, but I like the first of this I've listened to pretty well so far.

More Defensive Listening articles! This is the most interesting part of this blog! Pants!-C

The Garage rock revival thing is kind of a farce. Garage rock was alive and kicking due to labels like Crypt and In the Red long before the nuggets reissues or The White Stripes. Dallas even had a great Crypt records band by the name of Fireworks that was around in the early to mid nineties. They went on to form Blacktop with Mick Collins from The Gories/Dirtbombs. Denton had a pretty thriving rockabilly/garage scene in the early nineties. A lot of those Crypt/In the Red Bands came through and played house parties. Another whole scene that is pretty much forgotten or overlooked by the modern scenesters. I know me and a lot of my friends were by the nuggets comps before they were reissued. I used to find them on cassette in the Hastings cutout bins. I have other friends that scored that stuff on vinyl. The Teenage Shutdown comps had less filler and the Fort Worth teen Scene comps were really good as well. All worth checking out. That's my 2 scents.

Ft. Worth teen Scene is pretty good and the Back From The Grave comps are pretty swell as well. I was able to score some Nuggets on vinyl back in the day which has more songs which aren't on the cd boxsets. Nuggets are "that great" I have to agree with whoever said that previously. First came across The Monks on "Hypnotic Eye" that old B side cableshow, they showed some videos of their performance and I was floored. Way ahead of their time. I was able to score one of the Infinite Zero releases of The Monks at CD World. Still looking for the Fleshtones "Hexbreaker", my record is one warped piece of crap now. I don't think Garage Rock ever went away, it just kind of changed sounds, evolved...thats good!

Well, I'm not saying garage rock ever went away either. A genre as loosely defined as garage rock can never really go away, can it? And you're right, labels like Bomp, Collectibles, Cicadelic, etc. were putting together complilations, reissuing old LPs and signing revivalists throughout the 80's and 90's.

What I'm saying is that "Garage Rock" as a mass marketed musical genre/fashion template was revived in the late nineties early 2000s. Like when Foley's started advertising its back to school clothes as "cool gear for young garage rockers." That kind of thing.

Foley's advertised for Young Garage rockers. I think I was really must have been oblivious to that stuff at the time. I got into the white stripes from the first record. They were just another garage band at the time. I was playing SXSW the same year they were there getting signed to V2. They scheduled for the exact same time slot I was. So Ihad to miss them. I think they were playing Room 710. Hard to believe considering where they are at now. It seem to that the majors tried to market the garage rock thing anbd for the most part it did not really catch on. The Hives did alright. The White Stripes expanded thenir sound beyond just Garage rock most Mooney Suzuki figured it would be a good move to start sucking. I'm glad the hype is settled back down. Go buy a Dirtbombs record!!!!!!

That's exactly what I was talking about, how and why a relatively obscure (to the mainstream) genre becomes marketable or desirable to younger generations. I'm not talking about thirty something or older record collectors buying up every underground garage compilation. I was aware of that shit (European revival labels etc.) at the time because I was a (very young) geek myself. My point is what impact it might have had that you could buy "Black Monk Time" at Circuit City. That's more significant than the fringe collector fans all hanging out buying weirdo garage comps at RPM Records eleven or more years ago. That has it's place in keeping things alive but it's not as interesting.

speaking of the dirtbombs...there is nw a video on youtube that taylor put on up on his site the other day... i hadn't heard them before(there is also a SWEET Whirlwind Heat video that he shot in like '03)

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